The present application relates to the general field of agricultural and/or animal feed processing equipment. In particular, the present application pertains to equipment capable of shelling and grinding a variety of agricultural type products, e.g., corn. However, other applications are also contemplated.
A common problem which exists in animal feed preparation, particularly in the case of small farming operations, a farmer must rely on a feed grinding service to produce, for example, corn meal from the farmers own on-hand supply of corn. These services are not only expensive, but are also inconvenient in that the farm must schedule an appointment with such a service. Furthermore, such feed grinding equipment is not only large, cumbersome and expensive to purchase, but also very difficult to transport.
Furthermore, the prior art devices typically include a single inline process. As such, a failure of a single component of the assembly will result in the machine or device being entirely unusable until the problem or issue is addressed. Moreover, such devices do not afford the user the ability to select the level of grinding desired. For example, the user may prefer to use or store just the kernels and/or cob portions from a shelled ear of corn rather than grinding the kernels and/or cob into a fine feed grain or meal.
For at least these reasons, a need exists to provide an improved shelling and grinding apparatus while overcoming the aforementioned problems and others.